MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
The UK games industry is lagging behind other creative sectors when it comes to female employment rates. Creative Skillset’s Employment Census 2015 has revealed that 19 per cent of employees in the games industry are female – this lags behind every other creative sector in the country. That does at …
Read More »Assassin’s Creed Syndicate’s playable female lead was planned before Unity gender outcry
Developer Ubisoft Quebec has denied the longstanding accusations that it added in a playable female protagonist to Assassin’s Creed Syndicate in response to the controversy surrounding Unity. Unity was last year criticised for not giving players the option of using a female character in the game’s four-person multiplayer. The furore …
Read More »Madden 16 will have women in its crowds for the first time
Really, Madden never had women in the crowds before? Does FIFA? Clearly we haven’t been paying enough attention. FIFA 16 is taking a big step forward this year with the addition for the first time of female teams, albeit just a limited selection of international squads. US-centric release Madden may …
Read More »Sony was ‘nervous’ about Horizon Zero Dawn’s female lead
Unveiling Guerrilla’s new IP Horizon Zero Dawn upon the world at E3 was a tense moment for Sony Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida. Not because he wasn’t confident in the game, of course. Many have dubbed it the game of the show, but in an industry where attitudes towards females continue …
Read More »Women account for just 15% of UK games development
An investigation byDevelophas found that the women represent just 15 per cent of employees at UK games development studios. The survey received 85 respondents, studios that employ 2,806 staff in total. Of these, it was found that 433 were women. According to recent research by TIGA, the number of jobs …
Read More »Resident Evil’s Mikami: ‘I’ll never use women as objects’
Shinji Mikami has criticised the depiction of women as ‘objects’ in some video games. I don’t know if I’ve put more emphasis on women characters, but when I do introduce them, it is never as objects,” the Resident Evil and The Evil Within creator told The Guardian. In some games, …
Read More »PlayStation Flash sale supports gaming’s females
It’s hard to interpret Sony’s most recent PSN flash sale as anything other than a shout of support for the women of the games industry. A number of games and films featuring females are currently on sale on Sony’s service, the timing of which presumes that the company intends it …
Read More »Gamers more likely to friend trash-talking males and polite females
Men who play aggressively online are more likely to have their friend requests accepted than those who are polite and passive, a new report has found. Alarmingly, however, the opposite is true for women who are more likely to have their friend requests accepted if they are friendly and positive. …
Read More »Ubisoft responds to Assassin’s Creed Unity female omission as devs question reasoning
Publisher Ubisoft has distanced itself from claims that high workloads are behind its omission of playable female characters in the four-player co-op focused Assassin’s Creed: Unity. Ubisoft technical director James Therien yesterday said that adding playable women into the game would have created an unmanageable workload. Now, however, an official …
Read More »No female characters for four-player Assassin’s Creed: Unity
Assassin’s Creed: Unity will for the first time allow four players to work together – but not, it seems, for them to play as a female character. That’s the claim of Ubisoft technical director James Therien, who has argued that while the ten separate studios working on Unity have the …
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